


Honor Guard

by Mendeia



Series: Tales from Gundam Island [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Borrowing OCs, Gen, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 09:45:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2063421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendeia/pseuds/Mendeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As she continued up the path to their home, Kiyu reflected on the strange lives of the Kyoshi Island twins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honor Guard

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Clash of the Warriors](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/65211) by Miranda Shadowind. 



> This is the oneshot requested by the amazing reviewer Miranda Shadowind, who was also the mastermind behind the awesome art we received for Tears of Revelry. I was asked to make use of the OCs from Miranda Shadowind's existing stories, and I have tried to be as true to them as their author would ask. If you like the twins, definitely look them up in Miranda Shadowind's works!
> 
> The world is so vast, you guys. Not this – not this fic. But the real world. You never know where you'll leave your fingerprints and whose lives they will touch. It's been a week that I've spent thinking about a lot, and the conclusion I've reached? I'm happy to be here. If you read these stories and find something true in them, then it's worth it to me.
> 
> End vague contemplation. (Sorry)
> 
> The next 3 weeks will encompass a few different requests as well as a big 3-part story. It started one way and then abruptly smacked me in the brain and said "No, let's go THIS way!" So I did. I hope you'll like it.
> 
> Anyways, onto this update. Once again, thank you Miranda Shadowind for your unending support and praise and interest. You're a rockstar!
> 
> Enjoy!

The summons arrived via an enormous grey-blue messenger hawk with a white chest. The headwoman of Kyoshi Island was right in the middle of a meeting with the island's elder council, but she excused herself to bear the hawk on her shoulder out of the airy meeting house to begin the climb up the narrow path into the islands headlands.

"Good morning, Sifu Kiyu," came the polite greeting. The Kyoshi headwoman was not surprised at the slim young man that met her long before she had reached the somewhat isolated homestead, nor that she had not seen him until he chose to reveal himself. Rather, she would have been far more surprised if neither of the pair who made their home here had intercepted her.

"Good morning, Kayle," she greeted him with a smile. "Where is Krysta today?"

"Still practicing," he answered. "She's determined to get the Dragon Lotus form right before sunset."

"I have something for you both," Kiyu said. "If you will interrupt her when she is ready, I will wait at the house."

Kayle nodded and moved off into the undergrowth. Even knowing him for so many years, Kiyu was still impressed with the boy's strength and grace. Both the twins, Krysta and Kayle, had taken to the arts of combat as if born with blades in their hands, and not for the first time, Kiyu was glad of it.

As she continued up the path to their home, Kiyu reflected on the strange lives of the Kyoshi Island twins. They had been born on the island, but soon left to travel with their mother and father, the former a Kyoshi Warrior herself and the latter a swordsman of great renown in both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. They had been babes when Avatar Yuy had been killed, and Kiyu had gone several years without any knowledge of them while the world descended into chaos. But one stormy day a small craft washed up on the island's far shore. The twins' mother had given her life in an attempt to flee the iron control of the Fire Nation to reach her native land. From then on, Kiyu had raised the twins herself with the help of the village, building on the skills they had learned from their parents and providing a safe haven in a dangerous world.

But their peace was not to last. When the twins were ten years old, the Order of the Black Lotus had struck against Kyoshi Island, attempting to terrorize its legendarily independent people into submission. They had joined the island's defensive force, Kayle losing an eye in the battle, and the Black Lotus had proved to be too strong. The twins, along with many other warriors, had been taken captive to be sold as traitors to the Fire Nation. The Order of the White Lotus had intervened, however, freeing the prisoners while in transit and recruiting them to their efforts. Krysta and Kayle, angered at the evils they saw in the world and possessed of great skill already, had eagerly joined the Order.

That was the last Kiyu had known of them until after the Battle of Republic City, when they had returned to Kyoshi Island with the complement of Kyoshi Warriors who had volunteered to aid the United forces. Since then, they had kept mainly to themselves in the little house that had been their mother's, emerging only when the other Warriors were covering new material.

The headwoman glanced around the aggressively neat little house, certain that one of the twins was far more responsible for its impeccable state than the other. If she had been more of a mother to the twins than a benefactor, she might have begun making tea for them all. Instead, she sat primly on the mat reserved for guests to wait. Even a few years with them as children, Kiyu knew she was still very much an outsider to the pair.

A few moments later, the door slid open and the twins entered together. They were an interesting set of contradictions – Krysta wore the full regalia of a Kyoshi Warrior, but her brother was garbed mainly in the style of the Fire Nation elite like his father. The flowing green silks of the former were a stark contrast to the black and dark red sleeveless tunic of the latter. But what united them was their identical swords, designed by their father in their infancy and all they retained of his legacy. The blades bore a unique decoration – on one side, a dragon's shape undulated along the blade, but on the other, it was the form of a stork in flight. Krysta's first weapon would always be a Kyoshi fan, but she had learned swordwork as well and when she and her brother fought together, they were virtually unstoppable.

"Good morning, headwoman," Krysta said, dropping to kneel on her mat while shifting her sword so it didn't stab her twin as he took his place beside her. "Sorry for making you wait."

"Don't worry," she smiled as Kayle kneeled. "What I have for you is too important for me to have delayed in bringing it to you, even if I caught you by surprise."

"What is it?" Kayle asked curiously.

Kiyu tapped the messenger bird still on her shoulder and he turned to offer the rolled scroll to the twins. Both grabbed for it, but Krysta was quicker. She opened it, Kayle subtly leaning to read over her shoulder.

"By request of Relena Peacecraft of Republic City, you have been invited to a private audience in Republic City."

Kayle looked up. "A private audience? Why?"

Krysta shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Will you accept the invitation?" Kiyu asked.

The twins looked at one another, their identical dark eyes communicating so much more than words could express. They nodded.

"Good," Kiyu rose. "There is a ship leaving for Republic City in a day or two. I will tell them to make space for you."

"Wait!" Krysta asked, looking knowingly at their guest. "What aren't you telling us?"

Kiyu smiled. "You'll find out soon enough."

As she swept out of the room, Krysta gathered herself to demand answers, but her brother caught her arm. "There's no point," he said. "She'll never tell us if she doesn't want us to know."

Krysta might have kicked at the floor in annoyance except she was still in full regalia which demanded more dignity than that. "You're right."

"It can't be a trap," Kayle continued. "The headwoman would never betray us."

"It's Relena Peacecraft. She wouldn't set a trap for us anyway." Krysta sighed. "I hate feeling like I don't know what's going on."

"Which is what makes you a good spy," her brother teased.

At that, Krysta brightened. "And don't you forget it!" She turned towards the back door. "Come on. If we're leaving that soon, we only have another day to finish learning the Dragon Lotus."

"Which is a Kyoshi Warrior technique," Kayle said reasonably, "so I'm learning it…why exactly?"

Krysta grinned at him. "So I have someone to train with!"

-==OOO==-

The journey on the ship that chugged northward was enough to test even a monk's patience, but the twins were well used to long travel and times of boredom. Their years as part of the White Lotus had taught them the value of resting when rest was possible, and of sharpening their skills when time for it presented itself. The ship was a Mid-Water Tribe trading vessel, so it made many stops, but Krysta and Kayle kept mostly to themselves in a small room beneath the bow cleared out for their use. The rolling of the sea was nothing new to them, but it did test their skills for there is nothing worse than attempting the serene control of a martial arts form while the floor bounces up and down. By the time they reached Republic City, they could have met a true swordmaster in combat on a cloud and stood fairly good odds of, if not defeating him, at least avoiding falling down.

The ship was met at the dock by soldiers wearing the official guard uniform of the United Republic of Nations.

"Are you Krysta and Kayle?" the lead guard asked formally.

"Yes, we are," Kayle spoke promptly while Krysta scanned the area. She had a feeling that there was something she was missing as she looked over the busy docks and the shining city beyond. She'd been here before, of course, and helped to defend it from the Fire Nation at the time of the Avatar's triumphant return. Now, though, all her instincts were on edge.

"This way, please," the guard said, the escort falling into formation around them. It was a slightly strange parade they made as they wound through the streets to the Council building. Krysta noticed that Kayle, too, was on edge. She flicked him a reassuring glance and he gave her a tiny smile in return. Yes, he knew as well as she did that even if this was the most elaborate trap in history, they were equal to it.

Once within the Council building, the escort led the way to an area somewhat to the rear of what Krysta and Kayle thought would be the main audience chamber. The room was large and domed and mostly barren of any kind of furniture.

"I don't like it, Krys," Kayle said softly, moving to her side.

"Me either," she whispered back. She drew out her fan and flipped it once in her hand to steady her.

Suddenly the floor before them split and two black-clad figures erupted from the hole. Without a word, they attacked.

Krysta found herself paired off against someone wielding a single long sword, but after a few traded blows she guessed he was also a firebender. There was just something in his movements that seemed familiar to her from too many years of fighting against the tyranny of the Fire Nation. So Krysta began striking him as hard as she could, driving him to the defensive. There wasn't a firebender alive who would fight with _only_ a sword once pushed to his limit. After a few blows, flames erupted to close the hole in the fighter's defenses.

"Got you," she grinned ferally at him. She kept the fan in her right hand but drew her father's sword in her left, giving her a better balance against a firebending swordsman.

"Not yet," replied a sharp voice and the firebender launched a brutal attack. Krysta dodged and took an instant to check on her brother.

To one side, Kayle was holding his own against a fighter wielding twin blades, oddly curved. Kayle was not as hampered as most assumed with his halved sight, and he made good use of the misconception by feinting to that side defensively for a while before switching his blade to that hand and making a hard strike with it. But this time when he saw his opening, his opponent did not seem surprised at all. Though Kayle could not tell anything of the fighter behind the black mask, he watched the calm, almost calculating moves warily.

Krysta was forced to execute a desperate cartwheel to escape her opponent's flashing weapon and another blast of fire, and as she did she could feel the blade catch her just below the shoulder across her back. She gave only a grunt of pain, but it was enough to distract Kayle as he turned in sudden fear.

"Krys!" he called out, striking away one of the two curved swords and starting to run for his sister. But there was a sharp bite of a metal edge on his ankle and he lost his footing, upended by the dual-swordsman's off-handed blade. Kayle hit the ground with a hard thump, knocking the air from his chest. Before he could rise, one of the curved swords touched to his neck.

"Stay down," came a firm order.

Krysta came out of her spin to her brother on the ground and she saw red in her rage. She launched herself at her firebender fiercely, putting everything she had into her fan and her blade. She was a whirling storm of fury and skill, but she could not seem to overcome her enemy. He, at least, didn't seem able to overcome her, either. They traded equal blows again and again.

Suddenly Krysta spotted an opening, one where she could strike to disable rather than kill, and she went for it. The pommel of her sword came down on the firebender's collarbone, hitting a pressure point and cutting off his chi on that side. He swiveled away from her with a growl and raised his remaining working arm menacingly.

"That's enough!" shouted a new voice.

To Krysta's surprise, her opponent immediately drew up as if standing at attention. She watched him warily, but he seemed to be ignoring her. She turned back to her brother.

"Come on," the fighter with the curved swords had a hand out. Kayle hesitated for a moment before accepting the help back to his feet. "Nice work."

"Uh, thanks?" Kayle said warily.

From the far end of the room came four figures. But Krysta's attention was arrested on just one of them.

"Duo?! Is that you?"

"Sure is!" the Gundam answered with a grin. "Nice to see you haven't lost your stuff, Krissie."

"What's going on?" Krysta demanded. Beside her, her firebending opponent removed his mask.

"A test," he answered solemnly.

"Meet Wufei," Duo gestured. "One of the Gundams. This is Heero and Trowa," he pointed to the other two young men that flanked him, "and that one's Quatre."

Kayle's opponent pulled off his own mask and smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you," he bowed.

Kayle's mouth was open like a fish, but he managed a polite bow in return. Krysta, however, advanced on Duo.

"What's going on here? Why did the Gundams attack us?" Suddenly she remembered something else and gulped. "Make that why did the _Avatars_ attack us?"

"Because Duo said you could handle it," Heero said with a small shrug.

Krysta was fuming but Wufei appeared at her elbow. "You are injured. I apologize. I should have been more careful."

She tossed her head. "It's fine." Then she looked at where he was favoring his arm. "I did get you pretty good there, though. Want me to...?"

"That will not be necessary," Wufei answered stiffly. To Krysta's surprise, he moved to Duo, who expertly dug his fingers into the pressure point and corrected the pinch. She wouldn't have guessed somebody that formal and distant would turn to Duo of all people.

But then, she'd listened to the words of the Avatar that day not long ago, words of unity and oneness. She didn't know what it all meant, but maybe it was a start in explaining the odd way the five Gundams never seemed to lose track of one another, never seemed to be aware that they were covering one another's blind spots, that they moved together even when they were doing completely different things.

"We're sorry for the ambush," spoke the woman who had accompanied them. "Duo said you were the best, so we thought you could handle a little challenge." Her voice was contrite but there was humor in her indigo eyes.

Krysta moved to her brother's side, noting as she did that Quatre moved a bit out of her way. She drew up next to him but did not touch him, nor voice her worry. She just met his eyes and waited for him to affirm silently that he was all right. Only then did she turn back to Duo.

"So what's this all about? And what did you tell them?"

It was Heero who spoke up. "Relena Peacecraft is forming a special group of fighters to help protect herself and other important people from any remaining Black Lotus agents. General Noin is the only person other than ourselves and Chancellor Millardo permitted to choose the warriors, and we will only accept those we can prove are strong enough to defend her."

"I told them about how we met," Duo said.

Krysta snorted. "Did you tell them how you blew our cover?"

"I did _not_ blow your cover," he scowled. "I got ambushed! It's your own fault you broke cover to help me out! I didn't even ask for it! You just decided flinging tea trays around was more interesting than serving the stuff!"

"Regardless," Kayle stepped quickly in before his sister could wind up into an argument, "you obviously remembered us from that day."

"When we first made our list of potential recruits," Trowa spoke for the first time, "you two were the only ones Duo would name."

"He says you are not just skilled, which we have proved for ourselves," Quatre said. "He says you're dedicated, that you'll protect Relena and anyone else no matter what. We can't always be here in Republic City, and we need people we can trust to leave behind."

"So whaddaya say?" Duo grinned. "You two hold your own okay against two Gundams, including one really cranky firebender and one empath who can read your moves before you make them. You fought for the United Republic when you were here. And you're good at getting yourselves out of trouble. That's most of the requirements."

"There is one more," Noin said warningly. "You have to be able to protect whoever needs protecting, even if you personally would rather _not_ protect them. For example, Princess Dorothy of the Fire Nation." She looked at the twins sharply. "If you can't honestly swear that you'd defend her the same way you would the Avatars or Relena herself, we can't use you."

Krysta and Kayle traded glances. Kayle's face moved a little and Krysta knew he was on board, but only if she agreed. They were a team, and he would rather walk away from such an important job and an exciting possibility than stay without her. She smiled at him.

"We're in!" Krysta said with a smile. "But I'm allowed to annoy Dorothy, right?"

"Sure," Noin shrugged. "Duo does."

"This is going to be great!" Duo cheered, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly. "Now maybe somebody else will see the value in, um…" he looked around suspiciously before shrugging and finishing, "reminding that snooty princess that she was so totally wrong about _everything_."

"Are you certain this is a good idea?" Wufei looked to Noin.

She laughed. "No! But Duo gave them the okay, and they fought well against you and Quatre, and that's good enough for me."

"Come on," Quatre smiled at the twins and began to lead the way back into the main building. "There's a few others for you to meet that you'll be working with, and we'll want to introduce you to our hawks so you can reach us, and you'll want to set up quarters and…"

As he rattled off the things to accomplish, Krysta and Kayle exchanged grins. The twins knew that they were having the same strange feeling of homecoming that they'd only known a few times in their turbulent lives. But this, being here in the center of building up the peace and protecting the people most able to do it, this was what they had wanted to do since the first moment their mother and father hand put their first weapons in their hands.

" _Psst_ ," Duo hissed at them in a low whisper.

Krysta and Kayle turned and looked at where he was bringing up the rear of their little procession.

" _Remember that horrible swamp leaf tea you made me? Well, I'm thinking Dorothy deserves a nice big cup of it with her dinner_ …"

The twins grinned. Oh, yeah. This was _exactly_ where they wanted to be.


End file.
